Iíve updated the story and run a new item on Kotaku clarifying that the original image was fake. I regret falling for that one, which is thankfully not something thatís happened to me many times with the thousands of stories Iíve reported. Iíve always welcomed criticism but apologize for some of my tone in addressing critics. I do not and have not mass-banned people for criticizing the piece. But I have been casual enough about the criticism here that itís allowed some to think that I donít value accuracy and reader feedback. I do.

For my part in making this situation uglier and about something other than the accuracy of one report, Iím sorry. Iím sure you can imagine itís no fun to have your reputation dragged through the mud and have even conversations you thought were private brought into the public domain.

I hope that this one unfortunate incident won't mar all of the work I have been doing and will continue to do at Kotaku, and I invite you all to e-mail me if you have further thoughts, concerns, or critiques.

Play.com has contacted Eurogamer to confirm that the image that formed the basis of this report is in fact fake.

The listing for Monster Hunter Portable 3, however, was genuine, but has been removed at the request of publisher Capcom.

A statement issued to Eurogamer this morning read: "Play.com would like to clarify details of yesterday's alleged leak of four new Vita titles. Unfortunately, the screenshots with references to Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Nights, Tales Of Innocence R and Final Fantasy Type-0 HD, posted on a games forum were not genuine Play.com pages and were fabricated.

"The product page and listing for Monster Hunter Portable 3 is genuine and has been live on Play.com since January. Following advice from Capcom and to avoid further confusion in the gaming community we have removed the Monster Hunter Portable 3 page."

We would like to clarify that the other three titles have never appeared on Play.com. We would like to assure customers and gaming fans that, while we make every effort to make all new games available on pre-order as soon as possible, we are committed to ensuring that we deliver these products within the mutually agreed timelines confirmed with our publishing partners. We understand the dedication of the gaming community and hope this clears up any misunderstanding that this fabricated post may have caused.

Update7: No, Jason, it's the same old thread.

Originally Posted by AnEternalEnigma

Originally Posted by Tajin

Originally Posted by _tetsuo_

Which lies would those be?

According to his posts on another forum, I am the one spreading lies about him. To Jason, a junior member of Neogaf posting an opinion about the matter represents "Lies By Neogaf." My posts are the only "lies" he has mentioned so far.

edit:
Proof he banned someone on kotaku for being upset with them on another site:

Now he's trying to get blind51de banned on LL for posting those screens as "off-site harassment"

Typical tactics.

Originally Posted by Foffy

Originally Posted by Ignis Fatuus

So he has in fact been banned, huh?

Suspended for a month.

Originally Posted by Tajin

Some more gold that shows how Schreir and Kotaku functions:

edit: He is also banning people from the LUElinks community on Kotaku.

Update4: Jason Schreier bans Kotaku users for posting his Twitter article, would hate to imagine what goes on in WanderingWind's head, is still "one of the best reporters in the field" according to Kotaku.

Originally Posted by blind51de

A few highlights of excuses made yesterday by Schreier on Gamefaqs spinoff site "LUElinks", where he has been a regular poster since 2004:
Schreier's private apology:

Schreier responds to point related to his credibility:

Schreier's reply to Wanderingwind:

Others:
-Justified how he is not a complete Gawker view-whore in that he did not publish an obviously-fake set of blueprints for a "DS Lite".
-His editor has sent him a message reading, "You're one of the best reporters in the field. Anyone who doesn't see that is wrong."
-Had a user's Kotaku account banned for posting the picture from his blog, as a "personal attack". Gloated afterwards.
-Has not replied to people suggesting he make any sort of public apology (he made one to us, remember), or even laugh about the irony of the situation in related to his comments on Twitter (two completely different situations, according to him).

Schreier, better known on LUElinks as "Prism" or "Fox1340", is taken no more seriously there than in this topic. He is a well-known and community-relevant punchline to the joke that is videogame journalism.

Well hey, you seem to know what you're talking about. Quote from your article:

Originally Posted by jschreier

It seemed as if he was firing off rumors with no qualms or reservations, no matter where they came from. He didnít cite sources or look for confirmation on anything.

Keep up the good work, Jason Schreier. The world of video game media/journalism needs more folks like you.

Update2: Hey Jason, it's a shop. We can tell from some of the pixels and from seeing quite a few shops in our time.

Originally Posted by scy

Seriously though, this:

That's the bar I'm wondering that disappeared.

Originally Posted by WanderingWind

How utterly embarrassingly unprofessional, Jason. It's lucky you're at a place beset by a constant stream of illegitimate complaints and internet whiners. Your job is likely safe because your superiors likely won't care to sift through the garbage complaints and see this very real instance of shoddy workmanship and borderline plagiarism on your part.

Know that nearly any reputable site or news source would have you packing your things by now. You should be counting your lucky stars and just stop attempting to hold unpaid forum posters to standards that you've just proven to be wholly incapable of upholding.

It's not their job to fact check. It is yours, and yours alone. It's not Ignis Fatuus or Father_Brain's name on the byline. It's yours. Your actual name, by the way, Jason Schreier.

Which will likely pop up on Google for future employers who now know you're lazy, unethical and willing to lash out at a likely consumer base because you've failed to do the bare minimum of your job.

Update: Jason Schreier of Kotaku still believes the image is legit! Brushes off evidence, demands incontrovertible proof that it was photoshopped before he'll admit to being fooled.

Originally Posted by Father_Brain

Originally Posted by jschreier

Actually, I'm asking you to prove the accusations you're making in this thread. You are accusing me (and other reporters) of posting incorrect information, but your evidence appears to be based on nothing but assumptions. If you want to continue throwing around tired "lol game journalism" insults instead of, you know, actually backing up your claims, be my guest.

Meanwhile, as I said before, if anybody has something conclusive showing that these listings have been photoshopped, please let me know here or via e-mail (jason@kotaku.com). I will of course continue to look into this on my own, but I always appreciate hearing more info.

Your post cited Eurogamer's "tipster" as a source. I posted proof above from their comments section that there wasn't a tipster - it was at best a third-hand, circulated image, and none of the people involved in its circulation claim to have seen the supposed listings in the first place. If you don't think that's cause for an edit and are insisting on some kind of smoking gun proving beyond a doubt that it was Photoshopped, I don't really know what else to say.

-=ORIGINAL POST BELOW=-

These developments were first tracked in the Play.com thread but eventually grew into something far more than what the original thread was ever intended to cover.

The original news was that Monster Hunter Portable 3 was listed on Play.com. The subsequent carnival of stupid began when a photoshopped image from 4chan emerged, purporting to show listings for GTA: Vice City Nights, Final Fantasy Type-0 HD, and Tales of Innocence R:

Originally Posted by V_Ben

I'm not sure if these other ones are real...

While a quick search of Play.com would reveal that none of these other listings actually existed, somehow Eurogamer seized upon the image. Without any fact checking whatsoever, it quickly became front page news:

Joystiq saw it posted on Eurogamer and, again without any fact checking whatsoever, posted it as confirmed news as well:

These developments were first tracked in the Play.com thread but eventually grew into something far more than what the original thread was ever intended to cover.

The original news was that Monster Hunter Portable 3 was listed on Play.com. The subsequent carnival of stupid began when a photoshopped image from 4chan emerged, purporting to show listings for GTA: Vice City Nights, Final Fantasy Type-0 HD, and Tales of Innocence R:

While a quick search of Play.com would quickly reveal that none of these listings actually existed, somehow Eurogamer seized upon the image. Without any fact checking whatsoever, it quickly became an article. Joystiq saw it posted on Eurogamer and, again without any fact checking whatsoever, posted it as well.

In no time at all, the stupidity had gone mainstream:

Amazing.

If you read some of the articles it says it's not confirmed. It's not a confirmation article dude.

If you read some of the articles it says it's not confirmed. It's not a confirmation article dude.

And thus it's not worthy of being a news article. Unconfirmed or rumor without any backing belongs in some forum, not websites that represent themselves as "gaming journalists".

Everyone knew that 3 out of 4 are fake. You NEVER create articles based on website listing, as they tend to be bogus. Everyone at GAF who read the thread about Monster Hunter knew these were fake, but when websites start linking them, the carnival of stupid begins and everyone starts questioning the believability.

And thus it's not worthy of being a news article. Unconfirmed or rumor without any backing belongs in some forum, not websites that represent themselves as "gaming journalists".

True. Honestly, they should've put RUMOR in the title of the article rather than just making it seem like a confirmation. You are right though. I'm taking a journalism/magazine class and you should really fact check before you post stuff.

What sucks is that reading the comments in these articles, everyone who believes it is "hyped" about GTA or Final Fantasy and they will soon be pissed when they realize that their machine isn't ready for these.

That IGN UK article mentions how "the Monster Hunter 3 link is still live" implying that the other links are not alive, or "dead." subsequently, we can ascertain that the writer was made aware of this by personally going to Play.com and checking the other titles. When the results did not arrive, one could assume that the writer thought the links were taken down.

Probably shouldn't have still written an article but it seems like fact-checking to me. And no I'm not the IGN writer.

Eurogamer is the worst offender here as they started the train of dumb. Bloggers often report on reports, so I'll give them a bit of a pass, but IGN, Gamespot, Eurogamer, or any other outlets should have been fact checking on the original source.

Eurogamer is the worst offender here as they started the train of dumb. Bloggers often report on reports, so I'll give them a bit of a pass, but IGN, Eurogamer, or any other outlets should have been fact checking on the original source.

Are they blogs in the traditional sense when they have press credentials and hold a position of journalistic authority.

That IGN UK article mentions how "the Monster Hunter 3 link is still live" implying that the other links are not alive, or "dead." subsequently, we can ascertain that the writer was made aware of this by personally going to Play.com and checking the other titles. When the results did not arrive, one could assume that the writer thought the links were taken down.

Probably shouldn't have still written an article but it seems like fact-checking to me. And no I'm not the IGN writer.

The this is that there weren't any links; aside MH3. Searches since yesterday on play.com confirmed that. When the picture was posted yesterday (after it was posted at 4chan) in here it was just that..a picture. Since then, all those sites have taken the same pictures. And even the 4chan picture only had that: a picture and no links.

There's also that apparently Monster Hunter 3 has been on play.com for months; just that either recently they put it for preorder or made a mockup or something and others noticed.

***

There's still the conference/video this Friday so it will be interesting if true or not; we'll see. Since even if some MH game is shown; doesn't confirm any of the rest; since MH has been on the site for months. And Type O has been hinted at/rumored earlier too.

True. Honestly, they should've put RUMOR in the title of the article rather than just making it seem like a confirmation. You are right though. I'm taking a journalism/magazine class and you should really fact check before you post stuff.

You can fact check rumors too and if any of the rumors doesn't hold water don't report it. if you do decide to report it report that you found it to be false.